There is known a planar semiconductor light-emitting device in which an insulating polycrystalline layer of gallium nitride GaN is deposited on a p-type silicon substrate by the high-frequency sputtering technique, and a transparent layer of indium oxide is in contact with the insulating layer.
In the gallium nitride layer, at electric field E=10.sup.6 V/cm and supply voltage U=10 to 30 V, recombination of the injected charge carriers takes place, causing emission in the form of a pale-blue light having a critical wavelength of 0.48 microns.
A disadvantage of this prior-art device is the high electric field intensity which is close to the breakdown value, equal to about 10.sup.7 V/cm, and is due to the mechanism of the recombination of opposite charges into gallium nitride, the sources of these charges being the substrate and metallic contact.
In addition, the prior art device emits weak light invisible in daylight at a sufficiently high supply voltage (10 to 30 V), which substantially limits the area of application of this device. In the known device, one should provide a complex light transmissive contact because of the radiant energy being absorbed in the silicon substrate, which complicates the manufacture of devices based thereon.